


Glitter and Crimson

by rawritzrobin



Series: The Stellaverse [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baby, Batman - Freeform, F/M, Jason Todd Never Dies, Jason Todd is a sweetheart, Latte is back, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Pregnancy, Revenge, lots of dogs, snacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28424760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rawritzrobin/pseuds/rawritzrobin
Summary: Stella has moved on from her time in another universe. Her life with Jason is better than ever. But what happens when someone from that universe still wants his revenge? Old friends meet again, but this time, in Stella's universe.Sequel to Angel Amongst Bats. I suggest you read that one before this one. Find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24484597/chapters/59098819
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Jason Todd/Original Female Character(s), Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: The Stellaverse [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774024
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue: Crazy Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! Im back with another Stella story. 
> 
> Long story short, I was in the middle of writing this series when my dog passed away. Ever since then I haven't really had the motivation to write as much as I used to. Well that and my busy season hit be super hard this year. Hopefully posting a few chapters on here will motivate me to write again!
> 
> Now enjoy part three of the Stella story (:

“I got eyes on them!” 

“Good, I’ll be there in a sec. Don’t let them get away.”

“Sending my coordinates."

Jason revved his bike twice and drove off into the direction of Dick’s location. 

\--------------

The night started out calm. But, a calm night quickly turned into a wild goose chase as Nightwing had spotted Jester and Giggles causing some trouble downtown. They had stolen a Gotham City bus and were driving it down the street, destroying several cars and injuring several citizens. They jumped out of the bus last minute and crashed into a city bank. Luckily the explosion was small, barely scratching the exterior of the bank. Nightwing had started his pursuit on the couple.

Giggles was Jesters new sidekick. 

She appeared out of nowhere one day. Jester was all too ready to introduce her to Jason. She was a young woman light blonde hair. It was clear Jester shared his dad’s taste in women. Although, she was a lot less violent and crazy compared to Harley, she had Harley’s signature jester outfit, only hers was a dress and not a leotard. She always wore a mask and never spoke a word. She only let out soft giggles. Let’s just say her name fit her perfectly. She had a thing for toxins. She seemed to have something for every situation. One time she hit Nightwing with a potion that knocked him out for a week. To this day they still don’t know what the contents of that toxin contained.

Jester had made a name for himself in Gotham. He was a lot less psychotic than Joker, but they shared a similar hobby: Pissing off the Bat Family. He would rob banks, just for fun. He would kidnap the mayor and scare the living hell out of him. But the one thing he would never do, was kill. Sure he did injure hundreds of people when he placed that bomb on a cruise ship. But his intentions were to destroy, not to kill. Jason could never understand why he did what he did. It didn’t make any sense. There had to be more to him.

Despite the fact that Jester had made his appearance in Gotham more than once, he never got caught. Somehow, he would slip away from them at the last moment. It was even worse when Giggles showed up. She always had some sort of toxin ready to help them escape. That frustrated Jason to no end. 

Because Jester never really killed anyone, Bruce didn’t make him a priority. He was low level scum to Batman. 

But he was always Jason’s priority. Especially after what he did to Stella. Jason spent years tracking him down, but he always evaded him. 

Renegade looked down at his GPS and saw Nightwing was headed to the warehouse district. He leaned forward to speed up, determined to catch them tonight.

—————

Renegade hopped off his bike and shot his grappling hook onto the roof. 

“They’re here. They slipped in through a window.” Nightwing said through his comm.

“I’ll cover the roof. Cover the floor level. Drake monitor the cameras from all angles. I don’t want them getting away this time.”

“Copy that Renegade. I can see all the entrances and exits on my end. I’ll signal you if I see any movement.” Tim said.

They weren’t getting away this time. Jason was ready. He had custom made a mask for this particular instance. He had a little influence from his counterpart The Red Hood. With this mask he was ready for whatever Giggles had to throw at him. He quietly made his way into the warehouse through a vent. He slips down and leans against a wall, taking in his surroundings.

“Well look who finally decided to join the party.” Jester’s voice echos through the warehouse.

Out of nowhere a bright light shines onto Renegade’s face. It takes him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the lights. His face darkens when he sees what is in front of him. Jester and Giggles are standing in front of what looks like a bright yellow portal. In front of them was Nightwing, tied to a chair with what looked like a large gas filled bomb next to his feet. 

Jester pets Nightwing’s head. He was clearly unconscious.

“That was a lot easier than I thought. He fell right into our trap. Walked right into one of Giggle’s handmade darts. He pretty much fell right into our laps.” He said with a laugh.

Giggle’s let out her signature giggle.

“Well, you caught us at a bad time Ren. Hate to cut this short, but Giggles and I have some important plans with my parents. It looks like you’ll be quite busy here seeing how you have about 45 seconds to get poor old Nightwing out of here before that nerve gas goes off.”

Jester takes a step towards the portal behind him. He raises his left leg and steps inside.

“Catch you on the flip side Renny.” He says with a grin as he hops into the portal. 

Giggles follows him, but turns around to watch as Renegade sprints towards her. She giggles softly and jumps into the portal.

Renegade launches himself at her, but Giggles and the portal disappear before he can reach it. Renegade falls directly onto the concrete floor. He groans as he pushes himself up, onto his feet. That was going to leave a mark tomorrow. He shakes his head and quickly cuts Nightwing’s restraints. With ease he throws him over his shoulder and runs as fast as he can outside the warehouse. 

He hears the bomb go off behind him. He is far enough from the blast that the gas wouldn’t be able to hit him. With his free hand he signals for backup. He turns around to see the warehouse he was just in engulfed in a purple smoke. The smoke dissipates in a matter of seconds. Renegade looks around and lets out a relieved sigh as the warehouse was in the middle of several abandoned warehouses. 

This meant no casualties.

They chose this specific place for a reason. They never planned on letting anyone get hurt. They even gave Renegade and Nightwing enough time to escape the blast radius. But why would they do this? Where did they go? Why not just jump into the portal without alerting the cops with their bus joyride earlier? It was as if they wanted Renegade and Nightwing to know they were headed somewhere. 

“Drake, I need you to read the signatures of the area near us. Find out exactly where the crazy couple decided they wanted to vacation together.”

“On it.” 

A few minutes later, Batman and Robin drop by with the Batmobile, and they all head back to the cave.


	2. Chapter 1: Trouble in Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team regroup back in the Batcave.
> 
> Back home, Stella and Jason have a rough night.

Jason groans, taking off his mask and throws it on the large steel table. 

“Rough night?” Tim asked sarcastically.

Jason turned around to glare at him, but Tim wasn’t looking at him. He was busy typing away the computer. Jason turned around and huffed, crossing his arms in anger. At the moment he looked like a giant man child. 

Jason looked around the cave. Though his relationship with Bruce had gotten better over the years, they still weren’t that close. He hadn’t been back in the Batcave since Stella left. The caved remained the same. 

Cold, dark, and gloomy. 

A quiet groan came from the medical table next to Tim. Jason turned his attention to Dick, who was waking up from whatever Giggles had thrown at him. Dick sat up and place a hand on his head. He let out an annoyed sigh.

“Every single time she catches me by surprise. You would think I would know by now?”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Thats the reason I wear a mask over my face. You think this is for looks?” He said waving his red mask in the air.

Dick shruged, and stepped off the medical table. 

Tim ignored their banter. He was too busy looking for where Jester and Giggles might have gone.

“Any luck?” Dick asked from behind.

Tim shook his head. “Not yet. But I’m running a scan of particles in the air. Hopefully that will tell us exactly what type of portal they used.”

“It was a boom tube.” A voice said from the entrance of the cave.

Everyone turned to look at the figure standing next to Bruce. 

Zatanna Zatara grinned and winked at the boys in the cave. She drew her wand, and in an instant, disappeared from Bruces side and appeared next to Tim and Dick. Tim brought his attention back to the screen, typing away furiously.

Bruce and Damian walked down to join her. Jason stayed in his spot a few feet away from them. He tried not to make eye contact with Zatanna. His place in the hero universe was still a little unknown. 

Zatanna pulls out a USB from her coat pocket. 

“May I?” She asks Tim.

Tim pulls back and gestures to the computer. She plugs the usb in, and multiple screens pop up.

“We had a run in with Mirror Master a few weeks back. He managed to get the upper hand on Barry, and stole one of his boom tube devices. We were wondering why someone like him would even need a boom tube, but our questions were answered when we traced a portal to Gotham tonight.”

Zatanna pulls up a video of the warehouse fight. This grabs Jason’s attention. 

They watch as Dick appears on the footage, only to be knocked out by something falling from the sky in a puff of smoke. They fast forward to the part where Jason show’s up, and the portal is already open behind Jester and Giggles.

“Looks like Jester has made some friends.” Tim says.

Zatanna’s frowns. “According to my spells, they went to Earth 17-b.” 

Tim tenses. 

“No.” He says grimly.

“Whats in Earth 17-b?”

Tim turns to face Jason, his face full of worry. “That’s Stella’s world.”

Jason stands up. Zatanna, turns to look at him and takes a semi-defensive stance.

“Are you sure?”

Tim nods sullenly. “Positive. We write each other every week.”

Jason tenses. Why would that psychopath go there? Hasn’t he ruined her life enough? What was his plan? A million things ran through his mind. But he knew what his next course of action was.

“Send me there. I’ll take care of him.”

Tim shakes his head. “Jason there is no way we are sending you there alone. You don’t know anything about that world.”

“I know that monster is there. I know he is there to mess with Stella. I know I have to be there to warn and protect her.”

Tim stays silent. Jason ignores the many gazes in the room, and moves to put on his armor and mask. He walks up to Tim.

“Open a portal. I’m going. And if you won’t do it I know a certain someone who will send me there.”

“I’m in.”

Jason’s head snapped up.

Dick walked up to Jason and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“If Stella’s in danger, I want in. Plus, I wouldn’t mind seeing that worlds Nightwing again. He’s a great guy.”

Jason did not argue. He merely nodded.

“If you guys are going I want in.” Tim turned his wheelchair to face them. “And before you say anything, I am capable of taking care of myself.”

The others merely looked down at him, unsure about Tim’s decision. 

“I’m going. You’re not the only one with friends who have boom tubes.”

Jason and Dick exchanged glances. Jason shrugs. “Sure. Why not?”

Dick was a little bit hesitant, but nodded and agreed.

Zatanna let out a small sigh and shrugged. “Okay, whatever you guys want.”

She brought out a remote from her jacket. How that thing fit in such a small jacket was beyond Jason’s comprehension. She punches in a few codes and a yellow portal opens up in front of them.

They all step forward, but Dick stops them mid step.

“Wait. Shouldn’t we come up with a plan of some sort before we jump into another world?”

Jason pushes his arm down. “Jester is in Stella’s world. She’s in danger. We don’t have time for a plan.” He steps through the portal first. 

“We’ll plan as we go.” Tim said, eager to see Stella once again. He rolled his wheelchair into the portal after Jason.

Dick looked at Zatanna, who had a disapproving look on her face, then at Batman, who unsurprisingly had on a stoic expression. Dick couldn’t tell what he thought about their plan. Dick merely sighed and stepped through the portal, deep down hoping that nothing goes wrong.

————————

Stella blinked and looked around the room she was in. It was familiar, but not in a good way. She wriggles her hands and realizes she is in chains. Her eyes widen in panic as she takes in the room she was in.

“No.” She quietly whispers. “It can’t be.” She escaped. Jason came and took her home. There was no way.

“Oh but it can my little birdie.” A voice came from the shadows.

Stella quickly turns her head in the direction of the voice. A dark figure steps out from the shadows. With two steps forward, the figure moves into the light. Stella struggles against the chains as she quickly realizes who the figure in the room was.

In an instant, he was in front of her face. He grinned widely and laughed a menacingly wild laugh. Tears started to flow down her cheeks.

“I’m back.” He says in a teasing tone.

Stella opens her eyes and gasps. She quickly sits up and runs her fingers through her hair. She places on hand over her heart and tries to regulate her breathing. She clenches her eyes shut and tries to relax when she realizes it was all just a dream.

“Doll?”

She opens her eyes to see a concerned looking Jason standing next to the bed. He was shirtless and still had on his Red Hood pants. The bathroom light was on and he was holding a fresh pair of boxers. It was clear the had just come home from patrol. 

Jason sits on the bed and goes into protective mode once he notices the fear in Stella’s eyes. He wraps his arms around her and she buries her face in the crook of his neck. Stella focuses on her breathing. 

1\. 2. In and out. 1. 2. In and out. Don’t cry. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. Don’t cry.

Jason rubs soothing circles into her back. He gently rocks her back and forth while whispering soothing words into her hair.

“It’s okay princess. It was just a dream. I’m here.”

Stella clenches her eyes shut once more and repeats her own words of comfort in her mind. 

Jason let out a sad sigh. Their roles were reversed. Stella was usually the one who comforted him after he had a bad dream. But more often than not in recent days, it was him comforting her. 

It was always the same nightmare. Stella outright screamed the first time she had it. It scared the living daylight out of Jason that night. He nearly shot his gun into the dark, thinking there was an intruder in the room.

The interaction Stella had with Jester had really messed with her psyche. She would have reoccurring nightmares about the night he kidnapped her. It took a few months for the physical injuries to heal. There were no real physical scars from that night. 

But the mental scars? Those would probably never go away. 

Some nights she would wake up shaking. The worse nights were when Stella woke up before Jason was home from patrol. On those nights, Jason would come home to Stella in tears or in the middle of a panic attack.

Those nights were the worst.

Jason felt so useless. He hated feeling vulnerable. He could tackle anything thrown at him in the physical world.

But the mind was something else.

Once he felt Stella’s breathing calm down, Jason pulled away to look down at her. The fear in her eyes changed to relief as their eyes met. He smiled softly at her.

“Nightmare?”

She nodded lightly and pressed her face into his shoulders once again. She took a deep breath and took in his scent. He smelled like sweat and cigarettes. Jason never smoked in the same room as her. In fact, he was halfway through quitting. He usually just had one on particularly stressful nights.

Tonight was one of those nights, for both of them.

“Sorry. It’s the hormones.” She mumbled against his skin.

Stella pulls away and looks down at her protruding belly. Jason’s eyes followed her gaze as he brought his hand up to gently rub her stomach. 

Stella was 4 months pregnant. 

It came as a major surprise. She had always thought about starting a family, especially with Jason. But at that point in time, they had only briefly talked about it. Jason’s vigilante life wasn’t exactly the safest and Stella wasn’t planning on having kids this early on in her life.

She panicked at first. After a week of throwing up, Stella went to a doctor thinking she had a bad case of food poisoning. Imagine her surprise when the doctor confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. Her first stop after the doctors office was straight into the arms of Alfred. He was the first person she had told. He was ecstatic, which made Stella feel a little less nervous about the whole thing. She was worried Jason wouldn’t want it. She spent the whole night freaking out next to Alfred. But the look on Jason’s face when she told him changed both their minds.

When Stella told Jason the news, he hugged her so hard she had to push him off her.

“Jay. You’re cutting off air to the baby.”

The baby.

Those two words rocked Jasons world, in the best way possible. He had always wanted to be a father one day, especially with Stella. He had a grin on his face the entire month after she told him. The whole family thought there was something wrong with him. They even confronted Stella about Jason being on some sort of upper drug. When they all found out, they couldn’t be happier.

A baby on the way brought on a source of normalcy. A spark of hope that each and every one of the bat crew had a chance at a family. That night, Dick bought 20 pairs of onesies, a stroller, and a carseat. Stella laughed when he showed up at their doorstep with an arm full of baby supplies.

Surprisingly, Bruce was super supportive. He had always wanted his kids to have a normal life outside of Batman. This was Jason’s chance to get away from it all. His chance to give his Jason a normal life, something Bruce could never give him. 

Bruce offered to buy them a house the next day. Stella outright refused at first. It wasn’t like her and Jason weren’t making a decent living. Keep in mind the Covington estate rivaled the Wayne empire. It took a lot of begging and persuasion, but eventually Jason and Stella relented. They would be looking at homes with Bruce’s real estate agent next Friday. Jason wasn’t quite ready to give up their cushy, heavily secured apartment just yet. 

The pregnancy started off okay. Stella’s case of morning sickness were bad some days, but most days she felt fine. 

The cravings were real. Stella always had to have some sort of bread and butter at all times. It was so strange. One time, she sent Jason down the street to pick up Pop Tarts after patrol because the baby really wanted Pop Tarts. So at 4am, the Red Hood went to a 7-11 to buy a box of chocolate sundae Pop Tarts. The look on the cashiers face was priceless. 

Things were going well.

At first.

It wasn’t until her second trimester, the nightmares began. 

They stared off small. The usual nightmares your average Joe would have. Showing up late to a big meeting with investors wearing nothing but her underwear, a room full of spiders that wouldn’t die, teeth falling out, etc. 

But the ones involving Jester were always the worst.

Stella sighed and looked up at Jason. His hair was slicked with sweat and she noticed a newly stitched up wound on his right bicep. She quickly looked for more wounds, but luckily it seemed like he only had one tonight. He continued to look down at her, his eyes still full of concern.

“Sorry Jay. I’m okay now. Go shower yeah?” She said, smiling lightly.

“Are you sure? The shower can wait until you’re asleep.”

Stella shook her head. “No way. Go shower before your dirty sweat gets into that wound and it gets infected. Besides, you stink.” She said with a laugh gently pushing him away.

Jason rolled his eyes and placed a kiss on her head. “I’ll be quick. Do you need anything?”

She shook her head again. “I’m okay.”

He looked at her sadly. He noticed the hesitation in her words. The sleepless nights were slowly starting to get to her. He knew how it felt to be afraid of falling asleep. But he didn’t want to pry and start something that would take more sleep from her tonight. 

Jason helped tuck her in before placing a kiss onto her lips. Stella’s eyes were already starting to close from exhaustion. It was the third night in a row she woke up from a nightmare. She was exhausted.

“I’ll be right back.” He said with another kiss on her head. He grabbed the clothes he set aside, and moved quickly into the bathroom, keeping the door open incase something happened again.

Stella closed her eyes. She wanted to wait for Jason to come back before falling asleep, but sleep caught her before he was able to finish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years everyone! I hope you all have an amazing 2021. (:
> 
> PS. If you haven't already tried them, the hot fudge sundae Pop Tarts are THE best. :D


End file.
